Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Steelers Shutdown Rams 27-0

Today we saw the "Same old sorry-ass Rams" as San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Dana Stubblefield once called them. The St. Louis Rams are 10-37 under head coach Steve Spagnuolo after their 27-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Spagnuolo currently has the worst record by a Rams coach in franchise history. The Rams came out with the same conservative approach they have showed for three seasons now. The Rams have been outscored 1137 - 630 or 24-13 per game since Spagnuolo took over.

The St. Louis Rams gained 232 total yards against the #1 ranked Pittsburgh Steelers defense. The Rams came out running the ball behind Steven Jackson who had a solid effort gaining 103 yards on 24 carries. I don't think I have seen Jackson run harder or with more determination than he had in this game. Unfortunately Jackson just does not have the speed or blocking to bust the big one and the Rams must rely on the passing game to produce points. Kellen Clemens who played well against the Cincinnati Bengals last week struggled going 9 of 24 for only 91 yards.

In the year of offensive records being shattered the St. Louis Rams now have 15 touchdowns in 15 games played. To put that more in perspective LeSean McCoy of the Philadelphia Eagles has 17 rushing touchdowns on the season. In addition there are twenty NFL quarterbacks with at least fifteen touchdown passes. The Rams simply have to get more weapons on this roster and find someone who knows how to use them.

On this day the Rams were again no threat. Of course you can point out that if Josh Brown makes both field goals the Rams could have only been down 13-7 in the 4th quarter but he did not make those kicks. The Rams have now lost nine games by double digits and trailed in twelve of their fifteen games by double digits which is not competitive. You can say what you want about excuses, injuries, depth the offensive line, etc. but we deserve better, much better than this.

The Steelers knew they could play without Ben Roethlisberger and get by with 37 year old Charlie Batch because these are the same old sorry-ass Rams that we have been watching for years now. The Rams have not had a winning season since 2003 and we need Stan Kronke to step up and change this pattern now.